ROUND 1: Complicated
by NimbusSeeker70
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy is in love with his best friend, so what will he do when he sees Rose Weasley being harassed by McLaggen at the Holiday Ball planned by the Head Boy and Girl? This summary is terrible and I apologize for that, just read it. Written for the first round of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition!


**Title/Link: **Complicated

**Team: **Tutshill Tornadoes

**Position: **Captain

Hey everybody! This is the fic I wrote for the first round in the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. It's not my best work, but hopefully someone out there enjoys it!

PS, I'm not JK Rowling, so I don't own any of this.

"... and that's how my sister got engaged! Isn't that just adorable! Honestly, she and her fiancé, they were just made for each other! You know, I think..."

Scorpius sighed and looked at his watch, feeling sick to his stomach at the thought of this stupid ball lasting another two hours. He didn't think he could stand another second listening to Penny Parkinson gush about romance and other idiotic, uninteresting things, much less another 120 minutes.

Frankly, he didn't want to be talking to her in the first place, but he didn't have a date to the holiday ball the head boy and girl had planned, and she had tracked him down once she'd gotten there to corner him, forcing him to put up with her antics.

Absentmindedly, he scanned the crowd of dancers for his best friend and her date, Cormac McLaggen the Second. He rolled his eyes at the name. Draco had always said that it was completely like the first Cormac to name is own son after himself.

Frankly, he didn't know why someone as beautiful and intelligent as Rose Weasley would choose to go to the ball with someone as dull and idiot as McLaggen. He was a complete dunce- a total playboy who didn't care about anything past how well a girl could perform in a deserted corridor.

Rose was better than that, and he still didn't understand her reasoning. She'd told him it was just to get him off her back, and that she'd made it clear that they were just going as friends.

He only hoped that was true, because he didn't think he could handle it if the two became a couple.

He spotted Rose and Cormac off to the side, talking intensely about something. They were arguing, with her looking disgusted and him looking highly aggravated. Frowning, Scorpius watched closely as they argued, right up until the git decided to shut her up by slamming his mouth against hers, forcing her into a kiss and not allowing her to break away even when she tried to push him off her.

Bad idea.

"Hey!" shouted Scorpius, making his way quickly towards the pair and ignoring the stares from everyone in the hall. Even the orchestra had stopped playing to watch.

He grabbed McLaggen by the collar of his dress robes and pulled him off of Rose. Slamming him into the wall, he glared down at the slightly shorter boy. "Malfoy, what the hell-"

"You leave her alone, you hear? When a girl tries to get you to stop, you stop. Got it?" Scorpius said harshly.

McLaggen glared back at him with equal hatred. "What's it to you, Malfoy? She's my date, I can do whatever I want!"

That about did it for the blonde boy. Scorpius' grip on McLaggen's dress robes tightened, and it was all he could do not to punch him right in the nose. "You can do whatever you want with a girl, just as long as they agree to it, and their name isn't Rose Weasley. Do you understand me?"

McLaggen opened his mouth like he was going to retort something else, but Scorpius shot him a look that would have made even a basilisk run in fear.

Cormac pushed Scorpius off him roughly and stalked away, muttering profanity to himself. Scorpius just watched him go with a look of disgust on his face.

Once the git had left the room, most of the others returned to normal, save Albus, who looked at his two friends with a concerned expression. Scorpius took one look at Rose, shivering and crying quietly, and waved him away. Albus nodded and went back to his date for the night.

Scorpius looked sadly at the usually fiery redhead in front of him. She rarely ever cried.

"Come on, Rosie," he said gently, taking her hand and leading her out of the hall.

They reached a deserted corridor and sat down on one of the benches. "What happened?" Scorpius asked quietly.

Rose sniffled and dried her eyes. "We were having a perfectly fine time, and then he asked me if I wanted to..." She shivered. "He wanted to go find a broom cupboard to, well... You know... And I told him no, because we were just there as friends, and he..." She sniffled again.

"I'll kill that git," Scorpius spat venomously.

"Scor, don't," Rose said.

"Why not? He's an idiot anyways. And the nerve of him, trying to get you into a broom closet... I'll give him a piece of my mind tomorrow, mark my words."

"Scorpius, please don't," Rose said quietly. "I'm really not worth all of that. Just let the whole thing blow over."

Scorpius stared at his best friend in genuine shock. "Not worth it?" he asked in a voice so quiet he wondered if she even heard him. "How could you even say that?"

"Because this is stupid," Rose replied. "Nothing actually happened, and I don't want you to get in trouble for me. You're in serious contention for Head Boy and I'm not about to let you mess that up because of an incident with Cormac McLaggen."

"I don't care if I'm in contention to be the Minister of Magic!" Scorpius exclaimed. "Let the teachers give me detention, it doesn't matter to me!" He looked at Rose, and she wasn't meeting his eyes. "Look at me," he said. She kept her head turned towards the ground. "Look at me, Rosie," he repeated gently.

"What?" she asked quietly, her eyes filling with tears again.

"I'd do anything for you," he said softly. "I'd go to the ends of the Earth to protect you. I'd jump straight into Hell if it meant I could keep you safe, and I think you ought to know that."

Hardly even a second after having finished, she threw her skinny arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Thanks, Scor," she said.

He didn't say anything in response. Instead he just wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, breathing in the strawberry scent her hair always had. She always smelled nice, and her hair always fell in seemingly perfect waves around her face, and her eyes held so much light, and her laugh was so wonderful to hear, and...

Scorpius stopped himself in his tracks, mentally smacking himself in the head for thinking like that again. He absolutely, definitely, positively could NOT fall in love with Rose Weasley. He'd managed to push whatever feelings he'd been having since the beginning of the year down, and he planned on continuing to do so. But sometimes it was just so bloody hard...

"Scor?" Rose asked. She pulled away and frowned at him.

He shook his head to clear it. "What?"

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly. "You got all tense..."

Feigning dismissiveness, he waved his hand at her. "It's nothing. Just thinking about... Things."

"Like what?"

Scorpius stared at her. She was looking at him with genuine curiosity.

"Can I ask you a question, Rosie?" he asked suddenly.

"Sure..." she replied with a little bit of hesitation.

"Why did you go to the ball with a git like McLaggen?" Scorpius looked patiently at her, waiting for an answer.

Rose bit her lip and looked away, out one of the windows towards the Black Lake. "I don't really know," she said. "I guess it was because he just wouldn't leave me alone about it, and I didn't really have an excuse because I had nobody else to go with, so it was more or less to shut him up I suppose." She looked at him. "Why do you ask?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "I was just curious."

There was a long silence between the two of them. "I have another question," Scorpius said finally, taking a deep breath and feeling very unsure as to what might result from the conversation that would follow.

"Go ahead," Rose said, motioning for him to continue.

"Was there somebody else you wanted to go with?"

Scorpius waited for her to answer again, but this time, he felt more nervous than before. More nervous than he always did before a quidditch match. More nervous that he had before the transfiguration OWL exam. More nervous than the day he was sorted. Because although he hated to admit it to himself, he knew what he wanted her answer to be.

"Well..." Rose said with a hint of awkwardness in her voice. "I guess there was this one person... But I don't think they would ever want a relationship with me. We've been friends forever, and I don't know what would happen if that changed, so I guess for the past year or so I've just been pushing everything down for the sake of the friendship. I'm too scared to say anything about it to them because we're really close friends and I don't want to ruin anything, and also our fathers would kill us if we ever dated, and it's partially the reason why I said yes to-"

"I love you."

Scorpius broke eye contact right after he said it, too terrified to look Rose in the eye. He didn't want to see how she reacted. Already feeling like an idiot, he stood up to leave and looked at her.

"I'm sorry," he said in monotone. "I don't know what I was thinking, telling you that. You have permission to hate me for the rest of our lives."

He began to walk away, shoulders slumped and feeling worse than he'd ever felt in his life.

"Scor, wait!" Rose called after him. He heard quick footsteps on the stone floors of the castle behind him and turned around.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I never should have-"

"You love me?" Rose asked, cutting him off in mid-sentence.

Scorpius hesitated.

"Don't lie to me, Scorpius," she said quietly, sounding terribly nervous. "You know I'll know if you do. Just tell me. Do you really, actually love me?"

Finally, Scorpius looked up and met her eyes. She had a very odd expression on her face. Was it... Hopefulness?

"Yes," he answered after a long moment.

Rose nodded in satisfaction and took a step closer. "Good," she said. "Because I love you, too." Abruptly, she closed the gap between the two of them and kissed him full on the mouth for a good ten seconds before breaking away, leaving Scorpius to stare at her in shock and blissful happiness.

She started laughing her wonderful laugh. "Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that?" she asked him.

Scorpius grinned at her. "How long?" he asked.

"Since fourth year," she giggled. This was shocking for Scorpius, and not the part about fourth year, but the giggling. Rose Weasley never giggled.

Scorpius nodded. "I think it was the end of fifth year for me," he said.

Rose smiled and put her arms around his neck. "We should make up for lost time, then," she said. She kissed him again, and just as it seemed as though things were going to get heated, a voice shouted from behind.

"Oi!"

Scorpius whirled around to see Albus, who was second only to Rose in his circle of friends, standing there, eyes practically popping out of his head. He braced himself for yelling and screaming and an outpouring of overprotective-cousinly-ness, but he never got it.

Instead, Albus just shook his head and smiled at his bright red friends. "It's about bloody time," he saiid. Then he turned around and left.

Scorpius and Rose stood in shock for a few moments, then simultaneously looked at each other, causing them both to burst out laughing.

On impulse, Scorpius pulled out his wand and created a corsage with little white flowers surrounding a single, red rose. He got down on one knee while Rose just laughed at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked through her laughter.

"What I should have done before McLaggen did," Scorpius replied seriously. "Rose Weasley, would you like to do me the honor of accompanying me to the Holiday Ball?"

Rose faked looking flustered and in her most prim and proper voice replied, "That would be simply divine."

They both managed to keep serious expressions for a few moments before bursting out into another fit of laughter. Scorpius stood up and slipped the corsage onto Rose's wrist, and she magicked a boutonniere from thin air, pinning it to the front of his dress robes. Scorpius had to admit, his handiwork matched perfectly with her white floor-length gown and her fiery hair.

"You know what, Rosie?" Scorpius asked as they made their way, arm in arm, back to the Great Hall. "In a way, I'm sort of glad McLaggen is a git. Otherwise this might never have happened."

"Scor," Rose said quietly, standing on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I couldn't agree with you more."


End file.
